


The Story of Susan and Gordon (and Bob)

by ReleasingmyInsanity



Category: Sesame Street (TV)
Genre: Canon Character of Color, College, Cute Kids, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, Love Stories, Marriage Proposal, POV Character of Color, Susan Robinson and Bob Johnson are best friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 07:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14950349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReleasingmyInsanity/pseuds/ReleasingmyInsanity
Summary: Susan tells Miles the story of how she and Gordon got together, with a little help from Bob.This fic is related to my Linda/Bob fic "Don't You Know?" but both stand alone.





	The Story of Susan and Gordon (and Bob)

She found Bob first, Susan would later tell Miles when he asked how she had begun dating his father. And without Bob, her great love story might not have happened.

Susan had taken a class on Medieval Literature in her first semester of college, wanting to get her gen-eds out of the way quickly.

The professor took attendance the first day. “Robert Johnson?”

“Here. And I prefer ‘Bob’.”

Susan smiled at the boy sitting a few chairs away. She had seen him at orientation and knew he was in the same year as her.

“Susan Johnson?”

“Here.”

Bob turned to her with a grin. “I guess we must be related.”

Susan laughed. Even if they hadn’t looked nothing alike, Johnson was so common a last name that they both knew the chances of being related were slim.

She caught up with Bob after class.

“Do you want to grab some lunch?” she asked.

Bob smiled. “Sure.”

He was a music major she found out. His focus was on voice and piano. But he was also learning to play the flute, and he wanted to take a class on conducting orchestras.

“I have to take all that just to have enough credits,” he joked.

She told him about her passion for nursing and how she wanted to make a difference.

After that lunch she kept seeing Bob around. And she always invited him to hang out. “Bring your friends,” she told him.  “I’ll bring my friends and we’ll all hang out.”

Before long they were best friends and completely inseparable.

The next semester, Susan found Gordon.  

She was taking a biology class that was required for all science and nursing majors. Gordon was her lab partner. He was pretty cute she thought, with his big afro and gentle eyes, and he was very funny. Susan was slightly embarrassed to admit that her first thought was “Bob will love him.”

She introduced the two men the first chance she got, and she was right. Gordon and Bob got along instantly, they were a lot alike. Pretty soon it was the three of them, Gordon and Bob and Susan, they went everywhere together.

She didn’t tell Miles about all the trouble the three of them had gotten into in school. Or about the time they got arrested at a protest against discriminatory hiring practices. But she did tell him how much fun they had together. She even told him about their favorite joke.

“Bob is my brother,” Susan would say.

“Here. We’ll prove it,” Bob would add as he and Susan showed their student ids to their confused classmate. “We have the same last name, see?”

The follow up question was always phrased differently, but it always meant the same thing. The classmate would point out the difference in race.

That was when Gordon would calmly say, “oh, Bob was adopted.”

And while the poor student was trying to find a response, the three would walk away.

The three were never sure if people believed them or not, but it was a lot of fun.

It didn’t take long for Susan to find herself falling for Gordon. He was wonderful. And she told Bob that frequently.

“Gordon is so great.” “Did you see the way Gordon smiled when he heard there were meatballs for dinner?” “I could listen to Gordon explain air all day.” “Gordon is so smart.” “Gordon is handsome.” “I really, really, really like Gordon.”

“Susan, please stop telling me about Gordon,” Bob said more than once. “I understand that you like him. But I don’t understand why you won’t stop talking about it.”

“Just wait until _you_ fall for someone Bob,” she told him. “Then you’ll understand. And I fully expect to hear all about how amazing they are.”

She had no idea that Gordon had been saying the same sorts of things to Bob about her.

“Susan is beautiful.” “Susan cares so much about children, it’s really sweet.” “Susan is brilliant. “I am absolutely certain that Susan will save the world someday.” “Susan has a wonderful singing voice.” “Have I told you lately how much I like Susan?”

Years later, when Bob _did_ tell her all about his partners and how much he loved them, Susan understood why he had been so annoyed by her and Gordon. All the gushing was extremely irritating.

Looking back it wasn’t all surprising that after a few weeks of this, Bob had finally turned to her and said, “Susan. Don’t tell _me_ how great you think Gordon is. Tell _Gordon_ how great you think Gordon is.”

Susan had protested at first, saying that she didn’t want to risk the possibility that Gordon might not feel the same way.

“I like him so much and I know I would feel terrible if he didn’t like me back. I’m content being best friends.”

Susan wasn’t worried that their friendship would be damaged if Gordon didn’t share her feelings, she knew their friendship was stronger than that. But she didn’t like the idea of feeling sad over Gordon.

It didn’t take Bob long to convince her to tell him however, “But Susan, if he _does_ return your feelings then you’re missing out on a great relationship.”

Bob had a point, Susan thought. She didn’t want to lose her chance at love.

It took some more convincing but finally she was ready to tell Gordon how she felt. Now she just had to find the right moment. The moment came a few days later at lunchtime when they took their sandwiches to eat outside. Bob had bowed out, with a wink to Susan, saying that he had to study for a music theory test.

They set their food down on a table. When Gordon smiled at Susan she knew the time was right to tell him how she felt.

“I really like you Gordon,” Susan said quickly. “I think you’re really great, and I was wondering if maybe you would like to go out with me. As a date I mean. Just the two of us…” She trailed off, unsure what else to say.

Gordon smiled broadly and his whole face seemed to light up.

“I think you’re really great too Susan,” he told her. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to ask you out for weeks.”

Susan hugged him, snuggling into his chest.

“Can I kiss you?” Gordon asked softly.

Susan looked up at her new boyfriend and smiled. “Yes.”

Gordon leaned down and kissed her tenderly. Susan couldn’t imagine a better start to the perfect relationship.

“It really was that easy,” she told Miles. “I just told your dad how I felt, he felt the same way, and we started dating.”

She didn’t tell Miles how many times Bob walked in on her kissing Gordon. Or how after the first few times he didn’t even react, he just went about his business. She especially didn’t tell him the number of times that Bob had to remind them that he was in the room and could they please keep it PG.

Susan _did_ tell Miles about the running gag that she and the guys had. It began early in their friendship and would continue long after college. Susan would loudly question her sanity when they would tell her their latest goofy ideas. “Why do I keep you two around?”

And Bob and Gordon would always just smile at each other and turn back to her. “We love you too Susan.”

She loved that joke because she knew they meant it. It wasn’t a feelings confession, but a promise that the three would always be friends.

One day she and Gordon were taking a walk in the park just off campus. Bob was going to join them after meeting with his advisor, but at that moment it was just the two of them. Gordon was suggesting some new silly idea, Susan remembered. She had long since forgotten what it was. All she remembered was the sun shining, the birds singing, and the breeze.

Susan laughed, “Gordon I don’t know why I keep you and Bob around.”

Instead of laughing with her, Gordon looked at Susan softly and said with complete seriousness, “I love you too Susan.”

For a moment Susan found it impossible to speak. It was as though all the words had gone out of her head. All she had left was a world of beautiful emotions.

She gathered herself enough to respond, “I love you too Gordon.”

And then he was kissing her. Gordon held her tightly yet softly and she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him with everything she had.

This moment was everything she had ever dreamed of, and she felt that she could never love anyone as much as she loved Gordon.

Here Susan paused in her story to give Miles a hug. “Except for you of course.”

Miles laughed. “I knew what you meant Mom. Then what happened?”

“Well around then Bob showed up.”

Susan didn’t mention that at first they didn’t even notice that he was standing there, too wrapped up in each other.

“Okay then,” Susan heard Bob’s voice as though he were speaking from a great distance. She reluctantly pulled away from Gordon to look at her best friend.

“Oh Bob. We’re in love!” She told him excitedly.

Bob just shook his head affectionately. “Yes I know.”

She heard Gordon laugh as he continued to hold her.

“I mean we just said it!”

A big smile appeared on Bob’s face. "Aww. I'm so happy for you guys."

“Thank you!” Susan and Gordon said in one voice.

"You've been telling me that non-stop for months. What else is new?" Bob teased.

Susan just laughed, too happy to respond.

The three of them moved to Sesame Street shortly after graduation. Bob joked that he didn’t know what to do with himself without them anymore. She and Gordon purchased the 123 building. While Bob moved into an apartment across the street. They had offered to let him have one of the apartments in their building, but he said he felt better not having his best friends be his landlords.

Several years later Susan and Gordon decided to marry. There was no fancy story about how she and Gordon decided to get married. No sudden realization that she couldn’t live without him. Instead the decision felt natural, like waking up to the start of a new day.

They had talked about what they wanted out of life and agreed that they wanted to marry someday. But Susan told Gordon that she wanted a proposal before she considered them to be engaged.

Gordon proposed to her one warm summer’s day, in the same park where they first said “I love you.” Bob and their families looked on with a smile. Olivia had her camera as always, taking beautiful pictures. Gordon got down on one knee and asked Susan to spend her life with him.

Susan felt so loved. Everyone who meant the most to her clapped and cheered when she said yes. And Gordon swept her up into a hug, and gave her a loving kiss.

They chose to marry in the arbor. A simple celebration with only their closest friends and family attending. It was perfect.

When it was time to ask someone to stand up for her, she knew exactly who to choose. She loved her female friends. But there was only one person Susan wanted by her side when she pledged her love to Gordon. And that person was Bob. After all, if it hadn’t been for him, they might never have realized that they were in love.

The story was interrupted when Gordon arrived home from work.

“What were you two talking about?” Gordon asked as he picked Miles up and gave Susan a kiss.

Susan smiled. “I told him our story.”

“Did she tell you how it ends?” Gordon asked Miles.

Miles shook his head.

Gordon hugged them both close, “We live happily ever after.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sesame Street has been brought to you today by the letters C and R and by the number 4.
> 
> My university is known for its music program, but the music classes are only one or two credits apiece. That’s why Bob says he has to take lots of music classes to get all the credits.
> 
> I have never taken a biology class aside from Plant Biology, nor do I know anything about nursing or science majors.
> 
> Both the part about pretending to be siblings, and the part where Susan and Gordon first say “I love you” came from conversations with Arytra. Actually quite a bit of this fic was inspired by conversations with Arytra.
> 
> “If he’s your brother, why is he white?” “You can’t ask people why they’re white.”
> 
> When some of the kid Muppets ask Susan and Gordon how they first said “I love you” they tell them a lot about the breeze and the sunshine and the singing birds.
> 
> Bob is a sarcastic, bratty brother.
> 
> Susan asking for a proposal is because she wants the memory of it.
> 
> At Susan and Gordon’s wedding Bob absolutely put lots of references in his “Man of Honor" speech to being Susan’s brother.
> 
> Gordon is completely right with that final statement. They do live happily ever after.


End file.
